Embrace or reject the cold

Love it or hate it, we’re in the middle of another bitterly cold week. So we spoke to people who are either embracing or rejecting this blast from the north.

Stan Ferguson and Dan Page tried to make a rink at Corktown Park in Hamilton last year, but the winter was too mild. This year is a different story: “Beautiful compared to last year I’m telling you, it was a mess! We gave up. This year it’s beautiful.”

And they wish more people would come and skate here.

Jennifer McKenzie loves to skate: “Once you get moving out here it feels pretty great to be in the cool air.”

But the cold is cutting into the fun for children at Templemead School in Hamilton. They’ve been restricted to indoor recesses for nearly three weeks. The schools concerned about the ice on the playground. But it’s not a policy that parents Lori Greening and Marsha Byron support. They want their kids to get out and play. Lori is upset: “He’s had meltdowns right in front of the school wanting to play in the morning and not being able to. Kids are creatures of habit, they want to come out and play, they need the exercise.”

Lori and Marsha say on days like Tuesday when it feels like minus 30 with the wind chill factor, it’s understandable that kids should be kept indoors. But on other winter days when kids are cooped up inside learning all day, they believe kids need to get outside and get that fresh air.”

Marsha is concerned: “Kids need to go outside they need fresh air sometimes it’s the only time they get to out out is at school.”

Doris Boettger is the Principal at Templemead School: “Most schools, if they have playgrounds covered in ice such as ours is and many other schools, it’s not safe to have the kids out there.”

And the principal says the school doesn’t have the money to clear all the ice left from that wicked ice storm last month.

Cold weather means more money for Blue Line Taxi service says Assistant Dispatch Manager Sharon Rodger: “Extremely busy with the cold temperatures people are not taking public transit, they don’t wanna wait at bus stops so people who don’t usually take taxis are taking taxis.”

Blue Line says more people are using taxi’s because their cars won’t start in the extreme cold. Blue Line says they got 900 calls Tuesday morning; that’s double the calls they normally get.

Back to the rink, the teachers want to bring children from nearby Queen Victoria School to come skate here but they need ice skates and helmets to do that. Most of the children don’t own skates and helmets so their asking the public to donate if they can to Queen Victoria School so they can equip kids with what they need to safely come for a skate.

Editor’s note: The video has been repaired. CHCH News regrets the error in the original video.